We Can't Be
by EmmaBloom2006
Summary: Bella Scurlock is one of Miss Peregrine's peculiar children. Bella and her friends have rescued Miss Peregrine from wights and are trying to find a way to get here back to her human form. On their journey they meet Joshua Benthem, son of Miss Peregrine's brother Jack. The children don't trust him but Bella thinks he might be able to help them - and her. (BOOKVERSE; Hollow City)
1. Prologue

**Hey! So I know I'm already in the middle of** ** _Peculiar Mermaids,_** **but I have no idea what to do with that story and I've had the idea for this one for a while...so, yeah. I will still continue** ** _Peculiar Mermaids,_** **but it probably will not be updated as frequently.**

Sixteen-year-old Bella Scurlock looked around, terrified. She had been traveling for ages, trying to find shelter, but everywhere had kicked her out. She was on a little island called Cairnholm, in the midst of WWII. She was now standing in front of a bomb-ruined house that looked like it had been bombed a year ago.

It was 1941, and Bella was beginning to think the war would never end. She heard the sound of a bomb and ran into a little cairn that was across a bog. She stayed there until she thought the coast was clear.

When she came out of the cairn it was sunny. She took no notice at first, but when she kept walking she noticed something strange. The bomb-ruined house was gone. In its place was a beautiful mansion. In the garden there were big animal topiaries.

A wild-haired girl around Bella's age kneeled down and a giant carrot came out of the ground.

 _Whoa,_ Bella thought. _This girl is like me!_ She got the girl's attention and teleported to where she was. "Hi," Bella said. "I'm Bella. Can you take me to the person who owns this place?"

The girl hesitated, then nodded, motioning for Bella to follow her.

"What's your name?" Bella asked.

"Fiona," the girl whispered. She had a thick Irish accent. "Fiona Frauenfeld."

Fiona took her inside the house. They walked through hallways, ignoring curious faces peeking out of door frames, until they came to a room at the very back of the house. Fiona led Bella inside, and they walked up to a woman with black hair pulled up into a neat bun on the back of her neck. "Hello Miss Frauenfeld," she said. "Who is this?"

"My name is Bella Scurlock," Bella answered. "My house was bombed and I've been trying to find a place to stay. Can I stay here for a while?"

"Pleasure to meet you Miss Scurlock," the woman said. "I am Miss Peregrine, and you may stay here for more than a while. Welcome to your new home."


	2. Chapter One

**I am back! So, the rest of the story takes place in** ** _Hollow City_ and _Library of Souls_. ****I just wanted to make that completely clear. Joshua does not come in till like the middle, maybe late beginning. Hope you enjoy!**

Bella and her friends had just rescued Miss Peregrine from wights, and now they were trying to find a way to get her back to her human form. Well, at least, that's what they _will_ be doing, once they find land. The peculiars were in boats, and they'd been traveling for hours, trying to get to land.

"How much ocean is left between us and the mainland?" Horace shouted to Emma, who was holding the map.

"Four miles?" Emma answered, somewhat doubtfully.

Bella saw Millard whisper something in Emma's ear and Emma turned the map around a bit. "I mean, five," she said.

Bella groaned and Hugh, who was in her boat, volunteered to row for a bit. Bella nodded gratefully and switched with him. Fiona and Claire were also in her boat, and little Claire was getting restless. "How long is five miles?" she asked.

"It'll be at least three more hours, probably more," Bella answered, feeling just as impatient.

Bella looked behind her. Bronwyn was rowing a boat all by herself because Olive, who was in the boat with her, would push herself into the air every time she pulled the oars.

"Look!" Enoch shouted, standing up in the boat next to Emma, Jacob, and Millard's. "It's disappearing!" He didn't say but Bella knew what he was talking about.

"Say goodbye to our island," Emma said, standing up and taking off her hat. "We may never see it again.

"Goodbye, home," Bella said. "The only place that would accept me."

"Farewell, island," said Hugh. "You were so good to us."

Horace set his oar down and waved. "Goodbye, house. I shall miss all your rooms and gardens, but most of all I shall miss my bed."

"So long, loop," Olive sniffled. "Thank you for keeping us safe all these years."

"Good years," said Bronwyn. "The best I've known."

As Bella watched the island disappear into the distance, she thought about the time it became her home.

 _"Pleasure to meet you, Miss Scurlock," the woman said. "I am Miss Peregrine, and you can stay here for more than a while. Welcome to you new home."_

 _"You mean I can stay here," Bella said, dumbfounded. "Like, forever?"_

 _"Yes. You will be sharing a room with Miss Bloom. Miss Frauenfeld, would you care to introduce her?"_

And now it was gone. Forever. Her home for seventy-five years. Bella felt a huge wave of sadness pour over her.

Lost in her emotions, Bella barely noticed when the fog grew thicker.

"I don't like this," she heard Bronwyn say from behind her. "If we wait too long it'll be night, and we'll have worse things to reckon with than bad weather."

Then, as if on cue, the weather got really, _really_ bad. A strong wind blew up and waves rippled the surface of the formerly calm water. Then it started raining. _Hard._

"Turn the waves!" Bronwyn shouted. "If they broadside us we'll flip for sure!"

"Bella, _go!_ " Hugh yelled. "Teleport out of here!"

"No! I'm not leaving you!" Bella refused.

"Bella, Hugh's right," Emma called back. "You can get out of here. We can't. _Go!_ "

"No, I won't - " Bella's words were silenced by a wave coming right towards them.

Hugh held on to his seat with his arms and Fiona clung to him. Bella grabbed Claire and held on to the side of the boat. Her bag tumbled overboard, as did Hugh's, but she was too terrified to care.

Bella heard Jacob screaming their names in the distance and yelled back. She heard Enoch yell from his boat, too. Hugh let out a sigh of relief when they saw both Enoch's and Jacob's boats sailing towards them.

"Are you alright?" Jacob shouted.

"Over there!" Enoch and Horace called back. "Look over there!"

Bella looked and saw the hull of an overturned boat.

"That's Bronwyn and Olive's boat!" Emma said.

"We have to get closer!" Hugh shouted. He grabbed the oars and paddled closer.

"Bronwyn!" Bella yelled. "Olive! Are you there?"

The others joined in, screaming their names at the top of their lungs.

"Where are they?" Horace moaned. "Oh, if we've lost them..."

"Underneath!" Emma pointed at the hull. "Maybe they're trapped underneath it!"

Jacob banged his oar against the hull. "If you're there, swim out!" he shouted. "We'll rescue you!"

For a terrifying moment there was no response, but then, someone knocked from the underside of the overturned boat. A fist broke through the hull and they jumped in surprise.

"It's Bronwyn!" Bella cried. "They're alive!"

A few more strikes and Bronwyn was out, grabbing the oar when Jacob extended it to her. He, Emma, and Millard pulled her in. She was panicked, hysterical, and shouting for Olive. With a jolt Bella realized that the little girl was still missing.

"Olive - got to get Olive," Bronwyn sputtered once inside the boat. She was shivering and coughing up water. She stood up and pointed into the storm. "There!" she cried. "See it?"

Bella looked but couldn't see anything, and apparently, neither had Jacob. "I don't see anything!" he said.

"She's there!" Bronwyn insisted. "The rope!"

Bella looked closer and saw what she was pointing at. In the distance there was a thick brown rope. Olive must've been attached to the other end.

They paddled to the rope and Bronwyn pulled Olive down and tied her to the anchor line so she didn't float away.

Olive threw her arms around Bronwyn's neck and crowed, "You saved me, you saved me!"

"We ain't out of danger yet," said Bronwyn. "We still got to reach shore before nightfall, and our troubles have only just begun."

 **Okay, that's the end of chapter one! I hope you enjoyed it, please review and tell me what you thought. If I messed up on something, please let me know, I can't change it if I don't know it's wrong. Thank you for reading! Bye!**


	3. Chapter Two

**Hey I'm back! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

The storm was starting to die down but Bella still felt sick to her stomach. Judging by Jacob's greenish face, he was too.

"We'll rest awhile," Emma said. "We'll rest and bail out our boats until the fog clears..."

"Fog like this has a mind of its own," said Enoch. "It can go days without breaking. It'll be dark in a few hours, and then we'll have to hope we can last until morning without the wights finding us. We'll be utterly defenseless."

"And without water," said Hugh.

"Or food," added Millard.

Olive raised her hands in the air and said, " _I_ know where it is!"

"Where what is?" asked Bella.

"Land. I saw it when I was up at the end of that rope," Olive explained. "I rose above the fog and and briefly caught a clear view of the mainland."

"Fat lot of good that does," grumbled Enoch. "We've circled back on ourselves a half-dozen times since you were dangling up there."

"Then let me up again."

"Are you certain?" Emma asked her. "It's dangerous. What if a wind catches you, or the rope snaps?"

Olive's face went steely. "Reel me up."

"When she gets like this, there's no arguing," said Bella. "Fetch the rope, Bronwyn."

"You're the bravest little girl I ever knew," Bronwyn said, then got to work. She pulled the anchor out of the water and gave them the extra rope so they could tie their boats together, then tied Olive to the end and reeled her up.

For a moment they just sat there, looking at the clouds and waiting for Olive to tell them what she saw.

"Well?" Enoch called impatiently.

"I can see it!" Olive replied. "Straight ahead."

"Good enough for me!" Bronwyn said, clambering into the lead boat and taking the oars.

"Left...more left...not that much!" Olive directed.

Bella couldn't believe the little girl's bravery, and also couldn't believe that she hadn't teleported out of here. _I guess seventy-five years with the same people changes your view of them,_ she thought, realizing she would do anything for Bronwyn, Claire, Emma, Enoch, Fiona, Horace, Hugh, Jacob, Millard, and Olive. Claire curled up next to her and was instantly asleep. Bella tried to fall asleep too, thinking about how much she and her friends had already been through.

 **I know this one was kinda short, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Please review! I really appreciate them. Bye!**


	4. Chapter Three

The boats stopped in the shallows. Bella and her friends staggered out of them. Fiona grabbed a handful of pebbles and rolled them around on her tongue. Bronwyn groaned and sank to the ground, utterly exhausted. Emma and the boys reeled Olive down from the clouds.

"You're positively _blue!_ " Emma exclaimed as Olive appeared from the fog, and she leapt up to pull the little girl into her arms. Olive was soaked and frozen, teeth chattering. Emma ran her hot hands over Olive's body until the shivers subsided, then sent Fiona and Horace to get driftwood for a fire. As they waited for them to return, Bella and the rest of them gathered by the boats to take note of what they lost.

All they had left were the clothes on their backs, a little bit of food, and Bronwyn's extremely heavy steamer trunk. They tore open its latches, hoping to find something useful or edible, but all it held were the _Tales of the Peculiar_ and a bath mat embroidered with _ALP,_ Miss Peregrine's initials.

"Oh, thank heavens! Someone remembered the bath mat," Enoch deadpanned. "We are saved."

Everything else was gone, including Emma's map and Millard's Map of Days. When Millard realized it was gone he started hyperventilating. "That was one of only five extant copies!" he moaned. "It was of incalculable value! Not to mention it contained years of my personal notes and annotations!"

"At least we still have the _Tales of the Peculiar,_ " said Claire, wringing seawater out of her hair. "I can't get to sleep at night without hearing one."

"What good are fairy tales if we can't even find our way?" Millard asked.

Bella looked around. All she could see was wilderness, wilderness, and more wilderness. She looked at Miss Peregrine. They needed her. The _real_ her. Not the one sitting on a boulder, fanning her feathers dry. It pained Bella to see her like this. The Miss Peregrine she saw now was as broken as her wing, aimed downward in a horrific V. Her eyes were black and full of sorrow as she looked out to the sea. They seemed to say: _I failed you._

* * *

Horace and Fiona arced toward them through the sand, the wind poofing Fiona's hair and Horace bouncing with his hand on the sides of his head to keep his top hat on. Their arms were empty.

"There's no wood anywhere!" Horace said as they reached them.

"Did you look in the _woods_?" Emma pointed to a dark line of trees behind the dunes.

"Too scary," Horace replied. "We heard an owl."

"Since when were you afraid of birds?"

Horace shrugged and looked at the sand. Then Fiona elbowed him and he said, "We found something else, though."

"Shelter?" asked Bella.

"A road?" asked Millard.

"A goose to cook for supper?" asked Claire.

"No," Horace replied. "Balloons."

There was a brief, puzzled silence.

"What do you mean, balloons?" said Emma.

"Big ones in the sky, with men inside."

Bella's face darkened. "Show us."

They followed Fiona and Horace back the way the pair had come. Bella looked up and stifled a gasp. Two miniature zeppelins, big black egg-shaped sacs of gas with skeletal cages, hung below them, each containing a single pilot. Emma herded the children into tall grass.

"They're submarine hunters," Enoch said. Millard might've been the authority when it came to maps and books, but Enoch was an expert on all things military. "The best way to spot enemy subs is from the sky," he explained.

"Then why are they flying so close to the ground?" Jacob asked. "And why aren't they farther out to sea?"

"That I don't know."

"Do you think they could be looking for...us?" Horace ventured.

"If you mean could they be wights," said Hugh, "don't be daft. The wights are with the Germans. They're on that German sub."

"The wights are allied with whomever it suits their interests to be allied with," Millard said. "There's no reason to think they haven't infiltrated organizations on both sides of the war."

"I don't like the way they're flying," Enoch said. "They're searching the coastline, not the sea."

"Searching for what?" asked Bronwyn. No one answered her. Bella knew the answer.

They were searching for them.

 **Okay, that's the end of chapter three! Hope you enjoyed it! Please review!**


	5. Chapter Four

**Hi! Thanks to the people who have reviewed: isabellascurlock and a guest. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well!**

The children were squeezed together in the grass, trying to hide from the balloons that were searching for them.

"Run when I say run," Emma hissed. "We'll hide the boats, then ourselves."

They waited for the balloons to go away, then tumbled out of the grass, running towards the boats.

When they got to them, they dragged their boats into a sea cave. Bronwyn had spent all her strength and couldn't carry the boats, so the rest of them had to do it without her. Halfway across the beach, Miss Peregrine let out a warning cry, and two balloons appeared.

When they finally got to the cave, they dropped the boats and sat on their overturned keels, wheezing and panting from the weight of them. "Please, please let them not have seen us," Bella prayed aloud.

"Ah, birds! Our tracks!" Millard yelped, taking off his overcoat and going outside to cover them up.

A minute later he came back, shivering and caked with sand, a red stain outlining his chest. "They're getting close now," he panted. "I did the best I could."

"You're bleeding again!" Bronwyn fretted. Millard had been shot during their melee with wights the previous night, and the bullet hadn't killed him (obviously), but it had wounded him badly and the recovery was far from complete. "What have you done with your wound dressing?"

"I threw it away. It was tied in such a complicated manner that I couldn't remove it quickly. An invisible must always be able to disrobe in an instant, or his power is useless!"

"He's even more useless dead, you stubborn mule," said Emma. "Now hold still and don't bite your tongue. This is going to hurt." She squeezed to fingers into the palm of her hand, and when she took them out, they glowed red hot.

Millard balked. "Now then, Emma, I'd rather you didn't - "

Emma pressed her fingers to his wounded shoulder. Millard gasped. There was the sound of singeing meat, and a curl of smoke rose up from his skin. In a moment the bleeding stopped.

"I'll have a scar!" Millard whined.

"Yes? And who'll see it?"

He sulked and said nothing.

The balloons engines grew louder and louder, and Claire buried her face in Bella's lap, and Olive in Bronwyn's.

When the engines' whine began to dwindle, Claire mumbled into Bella's lap, "Tell us a story, Bella. I'm scared and I don't like this at all and I think I'd like to hear a story instead."

"Yes, would you tell one?" Olive pleaded. "A story from the _Tales,_ please. They're my favorite."

"This is no time for stories, girls," Bella said as sweetly as she possibly could.

"Why, certainly it is!" Enoch said with singsongy sarcasm. "But skip the _Tales_ for once and tell us the story of how Miss Peregrine's wards found their way to safety without a map or any food and weren't eaten by a hollowgast along the way! I'm ever so keen to hear how _that_ story ends."

Bella glared at him.

"If only Miss Peregrine could tell us," Claire sniffled. She disentangled herself from Bella and went to the bird, who'd been watching them from her perch on one of the boats' overturned keels. "What are we to do, headmistress?" said Claire. "Please turn human again. Please wake up!"

Miss Peregrine cooed and stroked Claire's hair with her wing. Then Olive joined in, her face streaking with tears. "We need you, Miss Peregrine! We're lost and in danger and increasingly peckish and we've got no home anymore nor any friends but one another and we _need_ you!"

Miss Peregrine's eyes shimmered. She turned away, unreachable.

Bronwyn knelt down beside the girls. "She can't turn back right now, sweetheart. But we'll get her fixed up, I promise."

"But _how_?" Olive demanded.

Emma stood up. " _I'll_ tell you how," she said, and all eyes went to her. "We'll _walk_. We'll walk and walk until we come to a town."

"What if there's no town for fifty miles?" said Enoch.

"Then we'll walk for fifty-one miles. But I know we weren't blown _that_ far off course."

"And if the wights should spot us from the air?" said Hugh.

"They won't. We'll be careful."

"And if they're waiting for us in the town?" said Horace.

"Then we'll pretend to be normal. We'll pass."

"I was never much good at that." Millard laughed.

"You won't be seen at all, Mill. You'll be our advance scout, and our secret procurer of necessary items."

"I _am_ quite a talented thief," he said proudly. "A veritable master of the five-fingered arts."

"And then?" Enoch muttered sourly. "Maybe we'll have food in our bellies and a warm place to sleep, but we'll still be out in the open, exposed, vulnerable, loopless...and Miss Peregrine is...is still..."

"We'll find a loop somehow," said Emma. "There are landmarks and signposts for those who know what to look for. And if there aren't, we'll find someone like us, a fellow peculiar who can show us where the nearest loop is. And in that loop there will be an ymbryne, and that ymbryne will be able to give Miss Peregrine the help she needs."

Hugh coughed, and bees came out of his mouth and made a question mark. "How can you be so bloody _sure_?"

"Because I am, that's all." She brushed her hands as if that were that.

"You make a nice rousing speech," said Millard, "and I hate to spoil it, but for all we know, Miss Peregrine is the only ymbryne left uncaptured. Recall what Miss Avocet told us: the wights have been raiding loops and abducting ymbrynes for _weeks_ now. Which means that even if we _could_ find a loop, there'd be no way of knowing whether it still had its ymbryne - or was occupied instead by our enemies. We can't simply go knocking on loop doors and hoping they aren't full of wights."

"Or surrounded by half-starved hollows," Enoch said.

"We won't _have_ to hope." Emma smiled at Jacob. "Jacob will tell us."

" _Me?_ " Jacob asked.

"You can sense hollows from a distance, can't you?" said Emma. "In addition to seeing them?"

"When they're close, it kind of feels like I'm going to puke," Jacob admitted.

Bella smacked a hand to her forehead.

"How close do they have to be?" asked Millard. "If it's only a few meters, that still puts us within devouring range. We'd need you to sense them from much farther away."

"I haven't exactly tested it," Jacob said. "This is all so new to me."

"Regardless, your talent can be developed," said Millard. "Peculiarities are a bit like muscles - the more you exercise them, the bigger they grow."

"This is madness!" Enoch said. "Are you really so desperate that you'd stake everything on _him_? Why, he's just a boy - a soft-bellied normal who knows next to nothing of our world!"

"He isn't _normal_." Emma grimaced. "He's one of us!"

"Stuff and rubbish!" yelled Enoch. "Just because there's a dash of peculiar blood in his veins doesn't make him my brother. And it certainly doesn't make him my protector! We don't know what he's capable of - he probably wouldn't know the difference between a hollow at fifty meters and gas pains!"

"Enoch!" Bella said.

"He _killed_ one of them, didn't he?" said Bronwyn. "Stabbed it through the eyes with a pair of sheep shears! When's the last time you heard of a peculiar so young doing anything like that?"

"Not since Abe," Hugh said. The mention of Jacob's grandfather caused a hush to fall over the children.

"I heard he once killed one with his bare hands," said Bronwyn.

" _I_ heard he killed one with a knitting needle and a length of twine," said Horace. "In fact, I dreamed it, so I'm certain he did."

"Half of those stories are just tall tales, and they get taller with every year that passes," said Enoch. "The Abraham Portman I knew never did a single thing to help us."

"He was a great peculiar!" said Bronwyn. "He fought bravely and killed scores of hollows for our cause!"

"And then he ran off and left us to hide in that house like refugees while he galavanted around America, playing hero!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Emma said angrily. "There was a lot more to it than that."

Enoch shrugged. "Anyway, that's all beside the point. Whatever you thought of Abe, this boy isn't him."

"You're right, I'm not my grandfather," Jacob said. "I'm just a kid from Florida. I probably got lucky when I killed that hollow."

"Nonsense," said Emma. "You'll be every bit the hollow-slayer Abe was, one day."

"One day soon, let's hope," Hugh said.

"It's your destiny," said Horace.

"And even if it ain't," Hugh clapped a hand on Jacob's back, "you're all we got, mate."

"If that's true, bird help us all," said Enoch.

"I need some air." Jacob pushed past Enoch.

"Jacob wait!" cried Emma. "The balloons!"

"Let him go," Enoch grumbled. "If we're lucky, he'll swim back to America."

 **Whoa, that was a long chapter! Do you guys like the long chapters or do you prefer the shorter ones? Tell me what you think in reviews. Bye!**


	6. Chapter Five

**Hi! Thanks to a guest and rebecca-in-blue for reviewing! I don't get a lot of them so I get really excited when someone reviews. Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

 **Guest: If you don't mean Voldemort than who do you mean? ;)**

Emma ran out of the cave after Jacob. When she was gone, Bella said, "Why did you say that Enoch? Jacob really _did_ kill that hollowgast. I saw it myself. Why don't you want to believe in him?"

Enoch stayed silent, averting her eyes. Bella shook her head and went to go read to Claire and Olive.

"Read us one of the _Tales_ please!" Claire said.

"Which one would you like?" Bella asked.

"Read the _Woman who Befriended Ghosts_!" Olive said.

"Alright," Bella said. " _There was once a peculiar woman named Hildy. She had a high laughing voice and dark brown skin, and she could see ghosts. She wasn't frightened by them at all. Her twin sister drowned when they were children, and when Hildy was growing up, her sister's ghost had been her closest friend. They did everything together: ran through the poppy fields that surrounded her house, played stick-a-whack on the village green, and stayed up late telling each other scary stories about living people._ "

Olive giggled.

" _She would entertain Hildy by making rude faces at the teacher that no one else could see, help her on examinations by looking at other students answers and whispering them into Hildy's ear. (She could have shouted them and no one but Hildy would have heard, but it seemed prudent to whisper, just in case.)_

" _On Hildy's eighteenth birthday, her sister got called away on ghost buisness._

" _'When will you be back?' Hildy asked, distraught. They hadn't been apart a single day since her sister died._

" _'Not for years,' replied her sister. 'I'll miss you terribly.'_

" _Hildy's sister hugged her, ghostly tears standing in her eyes. 'Try to make some friends,' she said, then vanished._

" _Hildy tried to take her sister's advice, but she had never had a living friend. She accepted an invitation to a party but couldn't bring herself to speak to anyone. Her father arranged a tea for Hildy and the daughter of a coworker, but Hildy was stiff and awkward, and the only thing she could think of to say was, 'Have you ever played stick-a-whack?'_

" _'That's a game for children,' the woman replied, then made an excuse to leave early."_

"I'll play stick-a-whack with Hildy!" said Claire.

"Me too!" said Olive. "Stick-a-whack is my favorite!"

" _Hildy found she preferred the company of ghosts to living people, and so she decided to make some ghost friends. The trouble was how to do it. Ghosts, you see, are a bit like cats - they're never around when you want them, and rarely come when called._

" _Hildy went to a cemetery. She stood around waiting for hours, but no ghosts came to talk to her. They watched Hildy from across the grass, standoffish and suspicious. She thought perhaps they'd been too long and had learned not to trust living people. Hoping the recently deceased would be easier to befriend, she started going to funerals. Because people she knew didn't die very often, she had to go to strangers' funerals. When the mourners would ask why she was there, Hildy would lie and say she was a distant relative, then ask whether the deceased had been a nice person, and had they enjoyed running in fields or playing stick-a-whack? The mourners thought she was strange (which, to be fair, she was), and the ghosts, sensing their relatives' disapproval, gave Hildy the cold shoulder."_

"Aw," said Claire. "Poor Hildy."

" _It was around this time that Hildy's parents died. Perhaps_ they _will be my ghost friends, she thought, but no - they went off to find her dead sister and left Hildy all alone._

" _She hatched a new idea: she would sell her parents' house and buy a haunted one instead, which would have its own ghosts built in! So she went shopping for a new house. The real estate agent thought she was frustrating and strange (which, to be fair, she was) because every time she showed Hildy a perfectly nice house, Hildy's only question was whether anything terrible had happened there, like a murder or a suicide, or better yet a murder_ and _a suicide, and she'd ignore the generous kitchen and light-filled drawing room to go look at the attic and the basement._

" _Finally, she found a properly haunted house and bought it. It was only after she moved in, though, that she realized the ghost that came with it was only there part-time, stopping by every few nights to rattle chains and slam doors._

" _'Don't go,' Hildy said, catching up to the ghost as he was leaving._

" _'Sorry, I have other houses to haunt,' he replied, and hurried away._

" _Hildy felt cheated. She needed more than a part-time ghost. She'd gone to so much trouble to find a haunted house, but it seemed the one she bought wasn't haunted_ enough _. She decided she needed the most haunted house in the world. She bought books about haunted houses and did research. She asked her part-time ghost what he knew, shouting questions after him as he raced from room to room, clanking here and slamming there. (He always seemed to be late for some more-important -_ " But Bella was cut short by Emma and Jacob running into the cave with worried looks on their faces.

 **That's it for chapter five! Hope you enjoyed and please review!**


	7. Chapter Six

**Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to post another chapter, I was caught up in school and whatnot. Joshua comes in during this one! Anyway, hope you enjoy!**

 **Guest: Do you mean Caul/Jack? If you do, he's coming in around the end if I only do _Hollow City_ , and around the middle if I continue on to _Library of Souls_.**

Emma and Jacob yelled at the peculiars to run, but they didn't need to, Bella and her friends were already on their feet, all except Bronwyn, that is, who had fallen asleep against the cave wall. They tried to shake her awake, but it was no use, she just brushed them out of the way. They ended up having to carry her, which was like carrying a tower made of bricks, until her feet touched the ground and she took on her own weight.

They quickly grabbed their things, Bella now thanking the birds they were so small and few. Emma scooped up Miss Peregrine as they ran outside the cave. Bella noticed men behind them as they ran toward the dunes, three of them with guns raised above their heads. The other one looked younger, and was sprinting toward the children as he looked behind him at the others.

* * *

After what seemed like hours, they finally stopped for a rest in the woods. A hand gripped Bella's shoulder. She screamed ant teleported out of his reach. She'd forgotten about the boy who had caught up to them. Emma lit a fire in her hand and stalked close to him. Claire and Olive cowered behind Bella.

"Who are you, wight? Show me your eyes! Take those ridiculous things off!" she snarled.

The boy held up his hands. "I am not a wight," he started.

"Ha! Lies!"

"Let me finish. I am the _son_ of a wight. But I am not one."

"Who are you then? Who is your mother? Who is your father?" Emma demanded.

"My name is Joshua Benthem."

The children all gasped except for Jacob, who looked confused.

"G-go on," Emma stammered.

"I am the son of the wight Jack Benthem, and the ymbryne Lysana Robin."

"Ha!" Emma scoffed. "Like an ymbryne would have a child with a wight!"

"You don't believe me?" Joshua didn't look surprised. "Well then, I have proof." He pulled up one of his sleeves. "See those scars? One of them was from my father, who thought of me as a failure. The other is from my mother, who scratched me as a child as punishment for my father, who had me with her when she was sleeping.

"I was supposed to be some kind of secret weapon, but of course that didn't turn out right. I left home and my father sends troops of wights out looking for me. Those wights were chasing me."

"So they weren't looking for us!" said Bella, relieved.

Emma was still trying to process what he'd said. "How do we know you're telling the truth? Are you a peculiar?"

"I am," he replied.

"What can you do?"

"Telekinesis. That means I can - "

"I know what telekinesis is," Emma snapped. "Prove it. Move something with your mind."

"Alright."

Bella floated up into the air, Joshua's eyes following her. She teleported back down and glared at him. "She said some _thing_ , not some _one_."

"Sorry, miss," he bowed and winked at her.

Bella tried to control her blush.

"Alright. You can stay with us for now. But I promise you, if you make one wrong move - " Emma lit a fire on her index finger and held it an inch away from his face. He didn't flinch. "I promise you, you will sorry." She put her finger in her mouth to extinguish the fire. "Is Fiona done with the shelter?" she called back to Jacob, walking towards him and leaving Bella and Joshua alone.

"So," Joshua said, "you can teleport."

"I can." Bella teleported to his other side and flashed him a smile. He chuckled.

"Can you teleport other people?" he asked.

"I don't know," she answered. "I've never really tried before."

"Well, now's your chance." He grabbed her hands. Bella blushed and imagined the two of them standing beside a small pond about a hundred feet away. A second later, Bella was the only one there.

Joshua jogged over, looking slightly disappointed.

It started to rain so the two of them ran back to the shelter Fiona had made by coaxing some trees to join together. They climbed in just as Claire started to cry.

"Get ahold of yourself!" Enoch said. "They'll hear you - and then we'll all have something to cry about!"

"They're going to feed us to their dogs!" Claire said. "They're going to shoot holes in us and take Miss Peregrine away!"

Joshua's eyes widened. "Miss Peregrine? My father's sister?"

Emma glared at him and ignored his question.

Bella scooted beside Claire and wrapped her in a hug. "Please Claire! You've got to think about something else!"

"I'm tr-trying!" she wailed.

"Try _harder_!" Bronwyn said, moving next to them.

Claire closed her eyes, let in a deep breath, and then let out the loudest sob yet.

Enoch put his hands over both of her mouths. " _Shhhhhhh_!"

"I'm s-s-sorry!" she blubbered. "M-maybe if I could hear a story...one of the _T-Tales_?"

"Not this again," said Millard. "I'm beginning to wish we'd lost those darned books at sea!"

Miss Peregrine hopped on top of Bronwyn's trunk, which held the _Tales_ , and tapped it with her beak.

"I'm with Miss P," said Enoch. "It's worth a try - anything to stop her bawling!"

"Alright then, little one," Bella said, "but just one tale, and you've got to promise to stop crying!"

"I pr-promise," Claire sniffled.

Bronwyn pulled out a volume of _Tales of the Peculiar_. Emma crawled next to her and lit a flame on her finger as a reading light. Then Miss Peregrine turned the page with her beak to a chapter.

" _Once upon a peculiar time, in a forest deep and ancient, there roamed a great many animals. There were rabbits and deer and foxes, just as there are in every forest, but there were animals of a less common sort, too, like stilt-legged grimbears and two-headed lynxes and talking emu-raffes. These peculiar animals were a favorite target of hunters, who loved to shoot them and mount them on walls and show them off to their hunter friends, but loved even more to sell them to zookeepers, who would lock them in cages and charge money to view them. Now, you might think it would be far better to be locked in a cage than to be shot and mounted upon a wall, but peculiar creatures must roam free to be happy, and after a while the spirits of caged ones whither, and they begin to envy their wall-mounted friends._ "

"This is a sad story," Claire groused. "Tell a different one."

"I like it," said Enoch. "Tell more about the shooting and mounting."

Bronwyn ignored them. " _Now this was an age when giants still roamed the Earth_ ," she went on, " _as they did in the long-ago_ Aldinn _times, though they were few in number and diminishing. And it just so happened that one of these giants lived near the forest, and he was very kind and spoke very softly and ate only plants and his name was Cuthbert. One day Cuthbert came into the forest to gather berries, and there saw a hunter hunting an emu-raffe. Being the kindly giant that he was, Cuthbert picked up the little 'raffe by the scruff of its long neck, and by standing up to his full height, on tiptoe, which he rarely did because it made all his old bones crackle, Cuthbert was able to reach up very high and deposit the emu-raffe on a mountaintop, well out of danger. Then, just for good measure, he squashed the hunter to jelly between his toes._

" _Word of Cuthbert's kindness spread throughout the forest, and soon peculiar animals were coming to him every day, asking to be lifted up to the mountaintop and out of danger. And Cuthbert said, 'I'll protect you, little brothers and sisters. All I ask in return is that you talk to me and keep me company. There aren't many giants left in the world, and I get lonely from time to time.'_

" _And they said, 'Of course, Cuthbert, we will.'_

" _So every day Cuthbert saved more peculiar animals from the hunters, lifting them up to the mountain by the scruffs of their necks, until there was a whole peculiar menagerie up there. And the animals were happy there because they could finally live in peace, and Cuthbert was happy, too, because if he stood on his tiptoes and rested his chin on the top of the mountain he could talk to his new friends all he liked. Then one morning a witch came to see Cuthbert. He was bathing in a little lake in the shadow of the mountain when she said to him, 'I'm terribly sorry, but I have to turn you into stone now.'_

" _'Why would you do something like that?' asked the giant. 'I'm very kindly. I'm a helping sort of giant.'_

" _And she said, 'I was hired by the family of the hunter you squashed.'_

" _'Ah,' he replied. 'Forgot about him.'_

" _'I'm terribly sorry,' the witch said again, and then she waved a birch branch at him and poor Cuthbert turned to stone._

" _All of the sudden Cuthbert became very heavy - so heavy that he began to sink into the lake. He sank and sank and didn't stop sinking until he was covered in water all the way up to his neck. His animal friends saw what was happening, and though they felt terrible about it, they decided they could do nothing to help him._

" _'I know you can't save me,' Cuthbert shouted up to his friends, 'but at least come and talk to me! I'm stuck down here, and so very lonely!'_

" _'But if we come down there the hunters will shoot us!' they called back._

" _Cuthbert knew they were right, but still he pleaded with them. 'Talk to me!' he cried. 'Please come and talk to me!'_

" _The animals tried singing and shouting to poor Cuthbert from the safety of their mountaintop, but they were too distant and their voices too small, so that even to Cuthbert and his giant ears they sounded quieter than the whispers of leaves in the wind._

" _'Talk to me!' he begged. 'Come and talk to me!'_

" _But they never did. And he was still crying when his throat turned to stone like to stone like the rest of him. The end_."

Bronwyn closed the book.

Claire looked appalled. "That's _it_?"

Enoch started laughing.

"That's it," Bella said.

"That's a _terrible_ story," said Claire. "Tell another one!"

"A story's a story," said Emma, "and now it's time for bed."

Claire pouted, but she had stopped crying, so the tale had served its purpose.

"Tomorrow's not likely to be any easier than today was," said Millard. "We need all the rest we can get."

They settled down for bed, and most of them were asleep almost instantly. Bella stayed awake. "Can you get to sleep?" she whispered to Joshua.

"No," he whispered back.

"Me neither."

"Do you want to go back down to the pond?"

"Sure."

They climbed over the sleeping peculiars and ran down to the pond they had gone to earlier. They sat down the edge and stayed silent, each peculiar lost in their own thoughts. Bella eventually got tired and fell asleep, her head falling onto Joshua's shoulder. They stayed there until morning.

 **Okee dokee, that is the end of Chapter Six! Yay! I want to give a shoutout to one of my awesome friends, who's always been there for me and supports me in everything I do. Thanks Demogirl!**


	8. Chapter Seven

**Hey guys! Did you like Joshua? You will see more of him in this one! Hope you enjoy!**

Bella opened her eyes sleepily. Joshua was already awake, looking off into the distance with Bella's head still on his shoulder. "Oh, birds..." Bella sat up abruptly, bonking heads with Joshua in the process. "Sorry!" she said.

"It's fine." Joshua rubbed his forehead.

"We need to get back to the shelter!" Bella started running back to the shelter, Joshua behind her. "Oh, Emma is going to _kill_ me!"

* * *

Emma did _not_ kill Bella, but she was _extremely_ annoyed with her.

"What were you _thinking_!?" she whisper-yelled. "Wights could've seen you, they're now looking not only for us but for Joshua too!"

"Actually they were already looking for me..." Joshua put in.

Emma looked at him. "Shut up." She turned her attention back to Bella. "None of us would be able to bear it if we lost you!"

"I'm sorry," said Bella meekly.

"It's fine, just don't run off again. And yes, that _does_ include teleporting." Emma smiled.

"Claire's sick!" Olive shouted, a worried look on her face.

"Will she be alright?" Jacob asked.

"She's feverish." Bronwyn put her hand on Claire's cheek. "She needs medicine."

"First we'll have to find our way out of this accursed forest," said Millard.

"First we should eat," said Enoch. "Let's eat and discuss our options."

"What options?" said Bella. "Pick a direction and we'll walk in it. Any one's as good as the other."

They ate in silence. All they had were a few rusted tins filled with brownish squares of congealed meat. Lacking utensils, they dug it out with their fingers.

"I packed five salted game hens and three tins of foie gras with cornichons," Horace said bitterly, "and _this_ is what survives our shipwreck." Pinching his nose, he dropped a nugget down his throat. "I think we're being punished."

"For what?" said Emma. "We've been perfect angels. Well, most of us."

"The sins of our past lives, maybe. I don't know."

"Peculiars don't have past lives," said Millard. "We live them all at once."

They finished, then prepared to continue their journey. Just as we were about to leave, Hugh burst through a thicket of bushes.

"Where have _you_ been?" Enoch demanded.

"I needed some privacy to attend to my morning never-you-minds," Hugh said, "and I found - "

"Who gave you permission to be out of visual range?" Enoch said. "We nearly left without you!"

"Who says I need permission? Anyway, I saw - "

"You can't just wander away like that! What if you'd gotten lost?"

"We're _already_ lost."

"You ignoramus! What if you couldn't find your way back?"

"I left a trail of bees, like I always do - "

"Would you kindly _let him finish_!" Bella shouted.

"Thank you." Hugh turned and pointed back the way he'd come. "I saw water. Quite a lot of it, through the trees there."

Emma's face clouded. "We're trying to get _away_ from the sea, not back to it. We must've doubled back on ourselves in the night."

They followed Hugh back the way he'd come, Miss Peregrine on Bronwyn's shoulder and little sick Claire in Bella's arms.

"Oh this is just _awful_ ," said Horace. "They've chased us right back into their arms!"

"I don't _hear_ any soldiers," said Bella. "In fact, I don't hear anything at all. Not even the ocean."

Enoch said, "That's because it's _not_ the ocean, you dolt." He stood up and ran toward the water. He was right. It wasn't the ocean, it was a lake. A misty, gray lake. But its most interesting feature wasn't the water, it was something _inside_ the water. A gigantic rock sitting in the shadows. There was something about it that bothered Bella. Something eerily familiar...

"It's the giant from the story!" said Claire, pointing from her spot in Bella's arms. "It's Cuthbert!"

Bella stroked her head. "Shh, honey, you've got a fever."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Enoch. "It's just a rock."

But it wasn't. It looked just like a giant who'd sunk in the water up to its neck. It looked just like Cuthbert.

 **The end! Just kidding, there are many more chapters to come! :) Hope you enjoyed! Tell me what you think of Joshua in reviews!**


	9. Chapter Eight

**Hey guys! I am back after a reeeeeaaaaaaly long break! Thanks to Keelin and QGE5E for reviewing! Your support means a lot, and I'm glad you enjoy! Hope you like this chapter too!**

"Look!" Olive pointed toward a rocky bluff in the distance. "That must be Cuthbert's mountain!"

"Giants are real," Claire murmured. "And so are the _Tales_!"

"Let's not jump to absurd conclusions," said Enoch. "What's more likely? That the writer of the tale we read last night was inspired by a rock that just happened to be shaped like a giant head, or that this head-shaped rock was really a giant?"

"I'm not sure." Joshua's brow furrowed.

"Well _I_ am," said Olive. "You take the fun out of everything, Enoch. _I_ believe in giants, even if you don't!"

"The _Tales_ are just tales and nothing more," Enoch grumbled.

"Funny," Jacob said, "that's exactly what I thought all of _you_ were, before I met you."

Olive laughed. "Jacob, you're silly. You really thought we were made up?"

"Of course. And even after I met you I still did, for a while. Like maybe I was losing my mind."

"Real or not, it's an incredible coincidence," said Millard. "To have been reading that story just last night, and then happen upon the very bit of geography that inspired it the next morning? What are the chances?"

"I don't think it's a coincidence," Emma said. "Miss Peregrine opened the book herself, remember? She must've chosen that story on purpose."

Bronwyn turned to look at Miss Peregrine. "Is that right, Miss P? Why?"

"Because it means something," said Bella, catching on to what Emma was saying.

"Absolutely," said Enoch. "It means we should go and climb that bluff. Then maybe we'll see a way out of this forest!"

"I mean the _tale_ means something," said Bella. "In the story, what was it the giant wanted? What he asked for over and over again?"

"Someone to talk to!" Olive answered eagerly.

"Exactly. So if he wants to talk, let's hear what he has to say." She waded into the lake.

They watched her go, looking slightly perplexed.

"Where's she heading?" said Millard. Jacob shook his head.

"We've got wights chasing us!" Enoch shouted after her. "We're desperately lost! What on bird's green earth are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking peculiarly!" Bella sloshed through the shallows to the base of the rock, then climbed up to its jaw and looked in its mouth.

"Well?" Jacob called. "What do you see?"

"Don't know!" she replied. "Looks like it goes down a long way, though. I'd better get a closer look."

Bella hoisted herself into the giant's mouth.

"You'd better come down from there before you get hurt!" shouted Horace. "You're making everyone anxious!"

"Everything makes _you_ anxious," said Hugh.

Bella tossed a rock down the giant's throat, listening for whatever sound came back. "I think it might be a..." She slipped on loose gravel, and her last word was lost as she scrambled and caught herself before she could fall.

"Be careful!" Joshua shouted. "Wait, I'm coming, too!"

He splashed into the lake after her.

"It might be a what?" called Enoch.

"Only one way to find out!" Bella dropped down the giant's mouth.


	10. NOTICE

**Hey guys! Sorry to disappoint if you were hoping for an actual chapter, but this is an announcement. I am taking a break from this story because I am going to do a Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Christmas special. I'm thinking about doing like an ugly Christmas sweater party between the children, but I don't know yet. Give me some suggestions in reviews and whether I should do BOOKVERSE or MOVIEVERSE.**

 **I also now have a second account in which I rewrite stories in the antagonist's POV called ygolohcsyP esreveR, AKA Reverse Psychology backwards. Here is the link to that:** **u/11487816/ygolohcysP-esreveR**


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